Raw Food Diet and Acne

Is there anyone on this board who has followed a raw food diet? A friend of mine told me that an elderly couple she knew ate only raw fruits and raw vegetables and that they look quite young for their ages. I am wondering if this might also inhibit acne for some people. Thanks in advance.

No it's not, it's a never ending cycle. I use this mask made form chickpeas and it's helped me out a lot but I know it won't get to the root of the problem, can you recomend any cook books Sweetjade? because that was the hardest part of all trying to figure out what to eat.

It's the hardest thing I have ever tried to do, but definitely worth it.

You WILL not be successful if the ONLY reason you're doing it is for clear skin. You have to believe that this is something you want for the well-being of your mind-body-spirit. It has to be something that you WANT to do, not like you feel you have to do/ it is a chore/ a "diet"/ etc.

Raw is a 360 degree turn from any other lifestyle out there. It's a completely new way of life.

I wasn't doing it only for my skin, I felt better overall, what I'm saying is that the reason I can't do it anymore is because I do not know how to prepare these foods, I have an idea what I can and can't eat, I just need recipes, I'm not doing it anymore because I felt it was a chore, I didn't know what to eat I was living on lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad everyday with brazil nuts and almonds and fruits, basically I was starving myself. THis is why most epople don't bother with dieting quite frankly. I havent' ran into a cookbook that has recipes for this perticular diet. Perricone's book sucks, he says you can eat plaing yogurt and cottage cheese and shrimp all well known acne aggressors, and uses ingredients in his recipes like caviar? how the hell can anyone afford that and who knows where you can find caviar for crying outloud. It also says to fry foods in olive oil, well according to some people on this board heated olive oil will break you out SO back to square one I think this doctor is on the right track, he just needs to do more research. And there is books about macrobiotic diets, but those recipes are something else too, so for now I'm just gonna keep looking.

I wasn't doing it only for my skin, I felt better overall, what I'm saying is that the reason I can't do it anymore is because I do not know how to prepare these foods, I have an idea what I can and can't eat, I just need recipes, I'm not doing it anymore because I felt it was a chore, I didn't know what to eat I was living on lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad everyday with brazil nuts and almonds and fruits, basically I was starving myself. THis is why most epople don't bother with dieting quite frankly. I havent' ran into a cookbook that has recipes for this perticular diet. Perricone's book sucks, he says you can eat plaing yogurt and cottage cheese and shrimp all well known acne aggressors, and uses ingredients in his recipes like caviar? how the hell can anyone afford that and who knows where you can find caviar for crying outloud. It also says to fry foods in olive oil, well according to some people on this board heated olive oil will break you out SO back to square one I think this doctor is on the right track, he just needs to do more research. And there is books about macrobiotic diets, but those recipes are something else too, so for now I'm just gonna keep looking.

Ahh, I would say that you shouldn't listen to what everybody on this board says breaks them out, but only what your body says breaks you out. As such, I don't avoid iodine containing foods as if that was truly a goal, one would eliminate turkey before seafood! Although the seafood itself, particularly shellfish can be allergenic and so it could be problematic for some people. Regardless, what have you personally discovered were your aggrevators?

We know that eating only lettuce, tomatos, fruits , nuts are OK for you, but what else were you eating? Any other vegetables, animal products or other sources of protein such as legumes? Also, when I do occasionally fry foods I do use olive oil and in terms of oxidation frying with oil prevents oxidation more so than if you didn't use oil (but if it breaks you out, don't do it). Of course, you can always bake or grill the food (same rules apply) and at least that way you don't need the oil when you cook it.

I do understand that knowing WHAT to avoid is what keeps people from doing this. I guess it's because when we really want something we know we should work hard to get it. Unfortunately if one gets to a certain point in life "working hard" may mean purchasing everything that is supposed to work for acne and using it all at once....yet how will you know which item(s) it was that actually worked for you? The same goes for when some/most around here attempt dietary changes. They assume that they MUST avoid ALL "bad" foods that have been reported, when they only need to avoid what is not the best for them personally, and I guess that's where the overwhelmed feeling and not knowing what they CAN eat stems from. =/

Basically, there's two methods to doing this and you were sorta on the right track for one of these. The one that your diet resembled was more of an elimination diet. Where you temporarily avoid most foods, keeping only those that have been deemed "safe" or low allergenic and waiting for the results. Results being improved health, resolution of symptoms, and in this case elimination of your acne? OK, well at that point you should have begun to add in a new food every 1 - 2 weeks to monitor your response to these foods (could keep a journal of reactions) . If you don't have a negative response, you now have a new food to enjoy =)

In this case it doesn't matter what is safe or bad, what matters is your personal response to it. So one way of adding in foods is to pick foods that are the most nutritious and that you like to eat and start adding in, one at a time, those first. Keep in mind this refers to whole foods and not packaged/refined foods as these have additional ingredients to be aware of (trans fats, added sugars, etc).. This is considered the fastest result wise, but the "hardest" because it involves instantly overhauling your life to do this. However, once you've figured out what foods bother you, it'll be easier, you'll have more to eat, and you may be able to eat out more often, if you want, because now you know what to look out for.

The other way of doing this is what I did, and it's easier on your stomach and your budget, but if you don't know your hormonal/health situation and guess a bit incorrectly, it could take longer before you achieve desired results. I avoided some of the common foods and never saw the connection until I eliminated Gluten. For me gluten is 95% my problem and the other misc. items are 4% or more, so of course I wasn't going to notice it, until I got the Main contributor ;-) Basically this method is about picking a food group or a diet from one the books that Amb1 posted (next post), or the Perricone book (which you did), Paleodiet, No-Grain Diet, Specific Carbohydrate diet, Blood Type Diet etc, and using that as your basis for what to avoid.

If you see results but aren't 100% clear, then you can look back and see if maybe some of possible irritants that others have mentioned are still in your diet. If they are, you may want start eliminating them 1 at a time, and gauge your results. If avoidance of a particular food doesn't change the amount or severity of your acne, add it back it, but if it does, leave it out. Continue doing this until you get 100% clear or you decide you would like to try adding supplements to your regimen.

We all have our limits and if I could go raw, organic etc I would, but I'm not in that position right now. So if you ever decide that you need a supplement, definately pick one that works along similar lines as your diet (insulin balancing, anti-inflammatory, fat metabolizing, gut healing, liver aid, etc).

Ani-
There are lots of raw food websites around, too. Run a search and surf around! For me, searching the internet is a lot less expensive than buying lots of books. Or check out your local library and I bet you will find some of the titles!